ActiveX Control Tutorial - Part 4

Today, we've explained the mysterious property keywords that cropped up in last week's tutorial.

The three major methods we discovered were WriteProperty, ReadProperty and PropertyChanged. Each assist in keeping your control both stable and user-friendly.

In the last half of this tutorial, we looked at the advantages of Property Pages, their similarity with the UserControl concepts discussed in the first section, plus learned how you can implement them to enhance your control's usability.

We discovered that if you're after something more than just an alphabetical list, it's time to turn to the property page. And I'm not talking about the back cover of your local rag.

For a little homework, why not try to improve some of the code here? Add your own properties, along with the appropriate read and write code. You could even inject a little razzmatazz into the Property Page we finished building just a few minutes ago.

And guess what prizes we're offering for the best design? Well, somebody claimed the three-year old Mars bar last week, so we're down to... oh. Nothing, actually.

Next week, we'll conclude the tutorial with instructions on how you can package your control for the end user. I'll also be providing a host of free, commercial-quality examples (with full source code!) plus a handful of top tips to ensure your control stands out above the crowd.

But until next time, this is your host Karl Moore waving you all a goodnight for tonight. Goodnight!